Mark Hix recipes: Our chef elevates the humble baked potato with simple and extravagant dishes

Breakfast, lunch, dinner, cocktail party - Mark has a baked spuds recipe for every occasion

Upmarket: Mark's salmon caviar potatoes (Jason Lowe)

You can have a lot of fun with baked potatoes, filling them with simple or extravagant ingredients. At my Selfridges restaurant, we occasionally have a baked-potato section on the menu which can include anything from a shepherd's pie to caviar-topped spud. But small new potatoes are also fun to serve with pre-dinner drinks or for a cocktail party.

Depending on your appetite, what you are filling them with and whether you are serving them as a starter or main, the actual size of the potato is up to you.

Baking your potatoes

Select even-sized potatoes and scrub them in cold water if necessary. Place them on a baking tray and bake for about 45 minutes to an hour, depending on their size. Leave to rest until cool enough to handle, then cut the top off about a third of the way down and carefully scoop out the insides, leaving about a third of a centimetre of potato near the skin. You can deep fry the tops and use them as potato skins with guacamole or a salsa, I often store them in the freezer and pull out a batch when required.

Mash the scooped out potato with some butter and a little milk using a fork and season to taste. Depending on the potato dish you are making you may not need all of the scooped-out potato so you can refrigerate it and use as mashed potato or make it into potato croquettes or bubble and squeak.

To serve your potatoes (pre filling) brush the skin with a little oil or butter and return to the oven for 10-15 minutes to crisp up. Depending on the shape of your potatoes you may need to cut some of the bottom so they don't roll around.

Salmon caviar potatoes

Serves 4

I suggest that you use medium-sized baking potatoes for this dish (ideally weighing about 200g). Alternatively, and depending on the shape of the potatoes, you could get away with using two larger potatoes cut in half, or even small new potatoes which you could serve as a canapé or snack.

120-150g salmon caviar (keta)
2 spring onions, halved lengthways and finely chopped

For the sauce

1 small shallot, peeled, halved and finely chopped
100ml white wine
½tbsp double cream
100g cold unsalted butter, diced
1tbsp finely chopped chives

Prepare your potatoes and mix the mash with the spring onions. While the potatoes are crisping up in the oven, put the shallots in a pan with the white wine and simmer until the wine has almost evaporated then add the cream. Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter until it's melted and emulsified. Season to taste and stir in the chives.

To serve, refill the potato with the hot mashed potato and spring onion mixture to the top and then spoon on the salmon caviar, covering the whole surface of the potato. Spoon the sauce on to warmed serving plates (not hot) and place the potato on top.

Chickpea bolognese

Serves 4

This is a good vegetarian alternative to the classic meaty bolognese. There are no real rules for the filling ingredient, you could even use a selection of beans such as cannellini or borlotti.

2tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, peeled, halved and finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
1 stick of celery, finely chopped
1 small green chilli (optional)
1 400g can of chopped tomatoes
4 potatoes, baked and prepared as before
250ml vegetable stock (or a cube dissolved in 250ml of boiling water)
250-300g soaked and cooked chickpeas, or a 400g can, drained and rinsed

Chickpea bolognese is a good vegetarian alternative to the classic meaty bolognese (Jason Lowe)

Heat the olive oil in a heavy based saucepan and gently cook the onion, garlic, celery and chilli (if using), for 2-3 minutes. Add the tomatoes and stock, season and simmer gently for 30 minutes. Add the chickpeas and continue simmering for another 15-20 minutes.

To serve, reheat the potato skins as before, half fill with the mashed potato and spoon in the hot chickpea mixture to just above the edge of the potato.

Breakfast potatoes

Serves 4

You can put more or less what you wish into this: sausage, black pudding, mushrooms, bacon, any ingredient that you might usually include in a fry-up really. I'd be tempted not to put too many ingredients in all together, though, or you may end up with a bit of a dog's dinner (or breakfast). Alternatively, you could take the fish route and use smoked haddock mixed into the potato.

For the filling

4 rashers of streaky bacon, cooked and diced
1-2 Cumberland sausages, cooked and diced
4-6 button mushrooms, sliced and sautéed in a little butter

To serve

4 small free-range eggs
1tbsp fresh white breadcrumbs, toasted with a little butter or olive oil
½tbsp finely chopped parsley

Mark has added bacon, sausages, mushrooms, and egg to his breakfast potatoes (Jason Lowe)

Prepare your potatoes as before and mix all of the ingredients for the filling with the mashed potato. Then refill the potatoes almost to the top.

Meanwhile, poach the eggs and drain on some kitchen paper. Place an egg on top of each potato, mix the parsley with the toasted breadcrumbs and sprinkle generously over the eggs.

Kedgeree potatoes

Serves 4

The ultimate all-purpose potato dish. You can serve it for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

200g un-dyed smoked haddock
100ml fish stock (or about a quarter of a good-quality stock cube, dissolved in that amount of hot water)
100ml milk

For the sauce

1 good knob of butter
2 medium shallots, peeled and finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, peeled and crushed
Small piece of root ginger, peeled and grated
¼tsp ground turmeric
¼tsp ground cumin
½tsp curry powder
½tsp fennel seeds
A few curry leaves
A pinch of saffron threads
1tsp flour
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

To serve

1 large free-range egg, hard boiled and cooled down

Kedgeree potatoes is the ultimate all-purpose potato dish (Jason Lowe)

Put the haddock in a saucepan with the fish stock and milk and bring to the boil. Simmer for a couple more minutes and then remove the pan from the heat. Drain in a sieve over a bowl and keep the milk mixture.

To make the sauce: melt the butter in a heavy based pan and gently cook the shallots, garlic and ginger without allowing them to colour. Add all the spices and cook for another couple minutes to release their flavours.

Stir in the flour then gradually add the haddock cooking liquid. Bring to the boil and simmer very gently for about 30 minutes. Blend the sauce in a liquidiser or with a stick blender until smooth and strain it through a fine-meshed sieve. Adjust the seasoning if necessary. The sauce should be quite thick, if not you can return to the pan and simmer again until it has thickened.

Reheat the sauce and add the cooked smoked haddock and keep warm. Peel the hard boiled egg and grate it on a coarse grater.

Refill the potatoes halfway with the hot mashed potato mixture and spoon in the haddock mixture then sprinkle with the grated egg.